Hello! I've recently started to play, and I am thinking I'm doing pretty well for a newbie. I'm in 72N, and it seems to have active players. Reading the wiki, it says to get my first shipment of cedar, I should ask someone. However.. I haven't really talked to others in this nome and would feel it rude to message them asking for donations. Short of paying the trader the insane price for it (which I am working on getting), is there any other way to get the cedar for ships?

You can trade for it on the Trade wall. Build up a supply of what you have and/or make then make an offer to trade it for cedar on the trade wall. The icon for the trade wall looks like this

Or, you can send a "scroll" to someone nearby and arrange a trade that way. You can click on the name of the nome and see the other cities near you on the nome map. By clicking on one of the cities you get the name of the player and next to that you can click on the icon to send them a private message.

If you introduce yourself in a respectable way on the general wall, and ask who they recommend to trade w/ for cedar... That is usually enough to receive more than enough help, gifts and advice! But alway be respectful/polite as we have children, adults, and seniors playing the game. Nasty people find it hard to trade! -S